Folio: Marguerite Duras

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When published in France in 1998, "Marguerite Duras" quickly topped bestseller lists, thrusting Duras back into the spotlight. Known for works like "The Lover" and "Hiroshima Mon Amour," Duras symbolizes France's complex World War II legacy and its colonial history in Asia, embodying the tension between autobiography and fiction. Now available in English, this exploration confronts the truths and falsehoods surrounding Duras's enigmatic life. Adler delves into pivotal events in Duras's career, including her affair with a Nazi collaborator and her childhood in Indochina, portraying her as a consummate pragmatist. Through meticulous research, including archives, letters, unpublished manuscripts, and interviews with Duras's acquaintances, Adler crafts a rich portrait of Duras's life: her upbringing, student years at the Sorbonne, her career as a novelist and filmmaker, and her engagement in French politics during the tumultuous twentieth century. A French review highlighted the theme of "the masks and the truth," which Adler examines, probing the boundaries between fiction and identity, as well as political actions and personal accountability.